ACS International School Cobham STEM Club joins forces with disability charity, MERU
ACS International School Cobham’s High School STEM Club has been working on a project to support disability charity, MERU. The charity helps disabled children and young people with mobility disabilities by creating unique and assistive products.
MERU offers a range of different products for children of all ages – from toy adapters to a specially designed powered wheelchair, the Bugzi. Bugzis offer a unique opportunity for pre-school children with disabilities to experience independent mobility, often for the first time in their lives. Each Bugzi is tailored and adapted to the individual child’s needs, with the capacity to adjust seating and controls as he or she grows.
Working in teams, students in the ACS Cobham STEM Club have designed giant obstacle courses, with various interactive activities, so children can put their Bugzis to the test while also having fun. When designing the courses, the STEM Club teams had to consider safety, creativity and – most importantly – fun, generating ideas that would engage the children to play and experiment with their new wheelchairs as much as possible. While students spent the majority of last year experimenting with the designs of the obstacle courses, next year they will take the next step to build the obstacles for children to enjoy.
A member of one of ACS Cobham STEM Club’s teams said: “After we attended our first meeting, we decided the initial ideas of what our final products should look like and got to researching. Over the break, my group members and I brainstormed ideas and started working on sketching out our project.
“Once our ideas were improved, the teams started working on the budget. We had to look for affordable and good quality materials to move forward with designing the projects. One of my teammates compiled all of the designs onto a digital booklet and we presented it to MERU. We’re pleased to say, the representatives of the charity were happy with our ideas. We enjoyed working on this project and are looking forward to designing the toys for the kids this year.”
In addition to its high quality and rigorous academic offering, ACS Cobham provides a wide range of extra-curricular activities to enable students of all ages to develop their talents and interests. The 128-acre campus has a new STEM lab; high quality sports facilities, including a 25-metre swimming pool, soccer and rugby fields, softball and baseball diamonds, an all-weather track, tennis courts, and a six-hole golf course; plus a dedicated Performing Arts Centre, featuring a 500-seat state-of-the-art auditorium.
ACS Cobham has a diverse student community, with young people joining the school from the local area, across the UK and around the world.
To find out more about ACS Cobham or to book an open day, visit acs-schools.com/cobham
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